Waterloo, Ia. – Michele Bachmann called for a national market for private health insurance and an insurance system decoupled from employment in a campaign stop at a manufacturing company here this afternoon.

“If we make it so that you can buy any health insurance policy anywhere in the United States with no minimum mandates, then you buy only what you want to have,” said Bachmann a Republican congresswoman from Minnesota who is running for president.

Currently, many health-care plans are regulated by the laws of the state in which they’re written and cannot be sold across state lines.

Turning to employer-provided insurance, Bachmann added, “You should be able to own your plan, so that your employer doesn’t own it. You get to own it, (and) you buy it with your own tax-free money.”

Such reforms – would make the market for health insurance similar to those for car and life insurance, reducing costs and increasing accessibility, she said.

That’s a big contrast to what she called “Obamacare” – the new federal healthcare law that includes a mandate for individuals to buy insurance. Under the mandates contained in the law – many of which haven’t gone into effect – Bachmann said the government would require individuals to get a “Cadillac” plan even though many may prefer a “Kia” plan.

The health-care law represents the “foundation” for a “government takeover of health care” that ultimately will lead to longer waits for care and higher costs.

“We’re going to see rationing,” Bachmann said. “I don’t want to see any of that business. That’s why as president of the United States I think I’m the candidate most committed to the full-scale repeal of Obamacare.

Bachmann directed much of her rhetoric on Monday at President Barack Obama, criticizing federal regulations enacted under his presidency and the debt-and-deficit-reduction plan he introduced this morning. Both represent trillion-dollar burdens on businesses that create jobs, she said.

Bachmann’s returned to Waterloo – her birthplace and where she launched her presidential campaign this summer – to visit OMJC Signal, Inc., a small company that manufactures portable traffic signals and reconditions other heavy-duty electrical equipment,

“OMJC” stands for “Our Master Jesus Christ,” and refers to business owner Arlen Yost’s conversion to Christianity, according to the company website. The site instructs visitors to read 1 John 5:10-12, a set of verses in the Bible, and invites them to e-mail Yost with questions.